Starlight
by warinbabylon
Summary: Story occurs immediately after Scully finds out she has cancer.


Starlite  
  
Cleaning out the Hard Drive. This was my first trial at fanfiction five years ago.Â   
  
Disclaimer: Well, all these fun folks from The X-files (Mulder and Scully) definitely do not belong to me(No matter how mush I wish it). They belong to Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions and Fox Broadcasting and are used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made from their use.  
  
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"Mulder?"  
  
"Mulder? Come up here."  
  
Fox Mulder sighed. Actually it was more of a pant. Even though this time he had taken the skyway to the top of the mountain, they still had to hike to the apex. Face it, Mulder he thought,you're getting old. "Coming, Scully."  
  
Dana Scully, his partner and friend, stood a short distance away in a clearing of pine trees. The light from a thousand stars and a half -moon lit her face and form, giving the illusion that she was one of them...a celestial being. Something about red hair in the moonlight, Fox thought. She seems almost luminous. The black trench coat that she wore finished the image, like a star wrapped in the cloak of night.  
  
"Have you ever thought about it, Mulder?" she began as he approached." When you look to the heavens, the sheer size of the universe? They are so numerous, the stars, the distance is so great. We are just one of trillions and trillions. Humbling, isn't it?"  
  
He stopped next to her and stuck his hands in his pockets. Like the last time he had ventured to Starlite Mountain, he was wearing a suit and coat. Like before he was rumpled and unshaven and he chuckled. The only difference this time was that Scully was with him. "You know Scully, every time I look up there, I think about our ET buddies."  
  
"Mulder..." she tried to keep the smile out of her voice, something she couldn't do as easily as keeping it off her face. Dana turned to look up at him. "I'm being serious here."  
  
"And so am I."  
  
"You, serious? Has hell froze over?" She smiled. " No, looking up there..to the nebulas and the galaxies. The stars and the moons...quasars and planets." Scully leaned back on her heels to look upwards again. "The amount of time that it took for everything out there to form and drift to its present position...and all the time that will pass before the last star burns into oblivion.. our lifetimes are grains of sands blowing on a beach. The time it takes our lives to pass is the blinking of an eye in the great scheme of things. It can really put a person into the proper prospective."  
  
"Come here, Scully."  
  
Scully leaned back as she felt his arms sneak up around her waist. She never realized he was so much taller than she; it was like leaning against a wall, a strong wall. And strength was something she was going to need.  
  
"Dana...when I first came here to this place, I was terrified. You were missing, and I couldn't find you. The second time I came here you were still missing and I still couldn't find you. Both times I looked to the sky and wondered if you were out there somewhere, hoping and waiting for me to find you. The night sky represented thousands of possible hiding places for you. Each one of those stars represented a new pain, a new failure that I had to live with." He stopped.  
  
Scully closed her eyes. She knew it had been painful for him while she was gone. Against her eyelids, she could see his face. Younger than it was now, tilted back in light sorrow. His hazel eyes mirrored the twinkling lights, portals to his soul. She had had this image of him in her mind during the time that she was away, not knowing where it had come from..and not really caring. It was the image that got her through the ordeal, one of the only things that she remembered from that time.  
  
"But now... Now, Scully, I think that the sky represents all the avenues that we have to follow, all the leads we have to track, all the chances we have to overcome this cancer of yours. It's a friend to me now, this sky." Mulder smiled into her hair as he pulled her closer to his chest. "And you may try and make yourself feel insignificant as a way of rationalizing your life and eventual death... but," he sighed softly "you are not. Not to your family, not to your friends, and not to me. Not by a long shot."  
  
"Thank you, Mulder."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"Bringing me here. To where it all started" She put her hands over his on her waist, " For being with me, trusting me. Even if I don't get thr..."  
  
"Don't say it. I refuse to believe that this will beat you." He choked out as he rubbed his cheek against her crown. It took him a minute to clear his eyes of unshed tears and his voice of sorrow. " You who could make a criminal regret the day his mother gave birth to him..nah, a little thing like this tumor won't get the best of you." Quieter he stated, "I won't let it."  
  
Dana was quiet, letting the early spring breeze stir her hair. She turned her eyes skyward again. Thousands and thousands. Millions of twinkling lights, the fireflies of the universe. Eternal flames. Maybe he was right... maybe one of these paths they had to travel would give an answer. Answers to her illness, answers to his sister... "Mulder?"  
  
"Yeah, Scully."  
  
"Take me home."  
  
Mulder pressed his lips against her hair in a silent kiss." Okay. "  
  
She moved away from him and went to start back down the incline. Mulder caught her hand and held it. "Really Scully...we'll get through this. I promise."  
  
She nodded slowly and moved down the hill, pulling apart their contact. Fox watched the breeze whip her hair and coat around her, feeling his own hair and coat do the same dance. Yes...they would get through this. There was too much else that he wanted to do, too much else that he wanted to experience with her. And lit by the moonlight, he followed behind her. 


End file.
